Few Women a Part of Post Conflict Rebuild

The Daily Monitor reports that the Ugandan United Nations Population Fund representative Janet Jackson says very few women are taking part in the rebuilding of post conflict Uganda despite being the bearers of the brunt of the conflict. Ms. Jackson was speaking at the launch of the State of the World and Ugandan Population annual reports, and she warned against the risks that the exclusion of women posed to communities who were rebuilding. She continued that women's participation is essential to contributing to the determination to move on and rebuild. This builds off of the United Nations Population Fund's report theme of "From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change" which focuses on women's role in the community in preventing and recovering from conflict. The report is based in the first hand accounts of women from regions like Bosnia, Herzegovina, Haiti, Jordan, Liberia, Timor-Leste, Uganda and the West Bank. These area have faced conflict and natural disaster, so they are prime areas of research for the United Nations. Displacement was the main focus in Uganda's case, relating to the 1.7 million people displaced over the 20 year war in the north. Ms. Jackson said that conflict exacerbates gender based violence because of the broken sources of protection.

By Margaret Nunne